Tag Archives: Queens Tavern

The streets of Ridgewood played host to the first annual Ridgewood Hair and Hound, part bar crawl and part scavenger hunt, on Saturday as part of Queens Beer Week, the nine-day celebration of local beer and breweries that runs through this Sunday.

The Hair and Hound was a collaborative effort between Ridgewood Beer Society founder Stephen Calebro, William Reder of Julia’s Beer and Wine Bar and Finback Brewery‘s Leah Blair.

Teams of craft beer enthusiasts were given a special map to the participating bars along the route. Each bartender provided the teams with a secret list of clues. The goal was for the teams to photograph objects in each bar based on the set of clues provided.

Queens Tavern, located at 68-69 Fresh Pond Rd., served as the hunt’s starting point. The bar featured specials on locally brewed beer, including Finback’s Double Session ($7), a floral brew spiked with peppercorn and ginger. They also featured pints of Bridge and Tunnel Brewery’s Twenty-Spot and a Switchblade Coffee Cream Ale ($7) infused with ground coffee for a smooth yet bold flavor.

The groups progressed next door to The Monk, a Belgian beer bar located at 68-67 Fresh Pond Rd. Teams were treated to $1 off drafts of Transmitter Brewery’s Saison S 4 Ale ($7), a white wheat malt brew combined with French Saison yeast for a full-bodied fruity flavor with hints of pepper.

Bleachers 67, a vibrant sport bar and grill located at 67-14 Forest Ave., offered specials on drafts of Queens Brewery‘s Queens Lager. Queens Brewery is currently planning to open their doors in Ridgewood in the fall. Their new locale will include a taproom and beer garden.

Julia’s Beer and Wine Bar, located at 818 Woodward Ave., was the fourth stop on the route. The bar featured $2 off specials on Finback Brewery’s aptly named Buddy System Double IPA, a tropical, hoppy brew with bold citrus notes. The sleeper hit, however, was the Kirsch Gose ($5), a refreshing pink sour cherry beer from Victory Brewing Company. According to Reder, this “salty sour” beer was created in the tradition of the old-world German brewing process.

The teams converged on Onderdonk and Sons (566 Onderdonk Ave. at Menahan Street) for a midday meetup and check-in. The bar featured an all Queens lineup of locally made brews on their taps. The list included SingleCut Brewery’s Pilsner, Braven Brewery’s White IPA, Rockaway Brewing Company’s ESB, Queens Lager, Bridge and Tunnel’s Coffee Cream Ale and Finback’s Double Session and IPA brews. Team members enjoyed the popular Onderdonk burger and fries before resuming their hunt.

The Hair and Hound wrapped up at Bierleichen (582 Seneca Ave.) where patrons enjoyed specials on Finback and SingleCut drafts ($6). The ultimate winners of the hunt were the members of Team Gunther, named after a longtime regular patron of Caskey’s Pub, currently Queens Tavern.

Prizes included T-shirts, tote bags and gift certificates to local breweries, including a free growler fill at Finback Brewery in Glendale. Organizers of the Ridgewood Hair and Hound thanked Bridge and Tunnel Brewery’s Rich Castagna for inspiration, as well as Finback Brewery, Transmitter Brewing Company, Braven Brewery and SingleCut Beersmiths for sponsoring the event.

A group of Ridgewood residents had mixed feelings as they gathered at a local bar to watch the premiere of “Weird Loners,” a new Fox comedy that uses the area as the inspiration for the show’s setting.

“The group [that lives in the] house in the show represents the patrons of the bar,” said Steven Lewis, co-owner of Queens Tavern, who, with Sarah Feldman from Ridgewood Social, had the idea to hold a screening party at the bar. “There has never been a show centered in Ridgewood on TV. The show was better than I thought it would be.”

“Weird Loners” centers on four relationship-challenged 30-somethings who unexpectedly end up in each other’s lives and start bonding while living next door to each other in a Queens townhouse.

According to creator and executive producer Michael J. Weithorn, the setting is based on Ridgewood, though the show’s current scripts don’t directly mention the area. There are future plans, however, to more directly feature the neighborhood in the sitcom.

About 25 to 30 people came out to the Queens Tavern Tuesday night to check out the show’s 9:30 p.m. debut and share their opinions, with the bar handing out noisemakers to the crowd so they could jeer at any mention of the borough.

During the fun and sarcastic mood of the evening, the crowd booed at the large living room of Becki Newton’s character Caryn and the exterior shots of the neighborhood. Weithorn had the set designer research Ridgewood’s old buildings, but the show was shot in Los Angeles.

“The show was corny,” said Morgan Pielli, who has lived in Ridgewood for two and a half years. “I thought it represented Ridgewood terribly. The set looked nothing like it.”

Liz Babish, who has also resided in Ridgewood for around two years and hails from New Jersey, was more optimistic about “Weird Loners” as a comedy, but said it wasn’t a reflection of her area.

“It has potential,” she said. “The show has a ‘New Girl’ vibe. Ridgewood was not represented at all.”

Babish was right about the “New Girl” feel — Jake Kasdan, an executive producer for the Zooey Deschanel series, is also an executive producer for “Weird Loners,” and even directed the pilot.

Attendees overall had positive reactions to the entertainment value of the first episode, which lays out how the four main characters — Caryn (Becki Newton), Stosh (Zachary Knighton), Zara (Meera Rohit Kumbhani) and Eric (Nate Torrence) meet and end up living adjacent to each other in Queens. The final scene finds the foursome mocking and then crashing a nighttime wedding in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

But they felt the comedy featured little of Ridgewood, and what it did portray wasn’t an accurate depiction.

“It didn’t show anything of Ridgewood. I hope it gets more street views of Ridgewood,” said Timothy Bakth, who has lived in Ridgewood for all 31 years of his life. “Being from Ridgewood my entire life, I wish they would have taken a look at Ridgewood 10 years ago; many things have changed.”

Queens Tavern is holding another viewing party next week, on April 7 at 9 p.m. “Weird Loners” airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on Fox.

The neighborhood that inspired the backdrop of a new Fox comedy will be holding a viewing party at a local bar for its premiere that is likely to be filled with more jeers than cheers.

“Weird Loners” is about four relationship-challenged 30-somethings who unexpectedly end up in each other’s lives and start bonding while living next door to each other.

Creator and executive producer Michael J. Weithorn, who also co-created “The King of Queens,” decided to use Ridgewood as the setting for the show.

He had the set designer research the old buildings of the neighborhood for the Los Angeles-shot show, and used a Polish delicatessen he visited in the area as a child for the inspiration for the background of two of the characters.

But these attempts to replicate Ridgewood don’t seem to be sitting well with some of its own who are planning on attending a party to watch its depiction on the small screen.

Grab a beer and uncomfortably watch the first episode at Queens Tavern on their full screen! Be in awe of how large their indoor apartment is! Then ask yourself… “if that is considered weird by mainstream standards… what am I?” Make bets with your fellow friends on how long until this show gets cancelled!

P.S. The word “Quooklyn” is banned from the party.

If the show does get the ax early on, locals won’t need to worry about any direct references to Ridgewood.

According to Weithorn the show’s current scripts don’t directly mention the neighborhood so far, but there are future plans to feature it more prominently in the comedy.

As Ridgewood adults grew out of the trick-or-treating phase they found another way to have some fun in the festive spirit of Halloween this year.

A spooky bar crawl around the neighborhood will be happening on Saturday, Oct. 25. The crawl, which was put together by Ridgewood Social in concert with some local groups and bars, will start at 7 p.m. and run through many of the popular bars in the neighborhood.

“We want people to come out in costume and have fun,” said Sarah Feldman, a Ridgewood resident and operator of Ridgewood Social. “We are really looking forward to it.”

The bar crawl will start in Brooklyn by the Bushwick/Ridgewood border at the bar Old Stanley’s. It will then make its way into Ridgewood as its next stop will be Paradise, on Woodward Avenue.

After that, the crawlers will make their way to Windjammer, Gottscheer Hall, Bleachers, Cozy Corner, Cream and finally end at Queens Tavern.

“This was a variety show and the difference between a variety show and a burlesque is you have an opportunity to entertain people with more unique performers,” Feldman said.

The event was put together by both Ridgewood Social and KissedPR, a public relations firm for small businesses. One person even commented on how the performances reminded them of what used to happen in Greenwich Village and said it was a “very New York City” kind of night.

The show worked out so well that Feldman was asked to put together another one and is hoping that she can have it as a monthly event at the tavern.

Already, she and the owner of the Queens Tavern have scheduled for the next show to be on Sept. 18 and hope for an even bigger crowd.